Year: 2018
I emailed a company with a question about their product. I didn’t receive a response. I emailed a second time, in case the first email opted for a Sunday stroll instead of delivery. Still no response.
Read MoreThe simple things don’t require connections to people who have already “made it.” Last week I touched on the power of simple hand-written notes. Some of the responses I’ve received have been along the lines of not being able to obtain the contact information of well-known, “made” individuals or not physically being able to do the handwriting.
Read MoreThe actress reads a book or screenplay and says, “I want to do this.” We applaud her vision. The editor discovers a manuscript and publishes it. We salute his taste. The director, the producer, the financier find a hot property and scoop it up. We give ’em an award. I’m not saying these artists don’t deserve their plaudits. All I’m saying is It all begins with the writer. The fun starts with you and me. Everybody else waits downstream. Everyone else comes late to the party. Others may interpret. They may mount, they may discover, they may finance, underwrite, refine,…
Read MoreThis week I received a postcard from Chewy.com. It was handwritten and hand-addressed. It was personalized. It led me to place another order.
Read MoreIf you’re an aspiring writer (or even an established one), you’ve seen websites and seminars and workshops that promise to “help you write a bestseller.” I’ve read and attended some of these myself. And I’ve learned from them. They haven’t been a complete waste. But let’s dig a little deeper and ask ourselves what’s going on in our minds when we buy into such a promise. “Bestseller” in this lexicon equals “success.” The promise between the lines is “This will change your life” Fill in the blanks for what you imagine that means. Money. Fame. A better…
Read MoreAfter Oprah made the decision to interview Steve, we met a few of her team members. There was the TV show, but also the magazine, and the site, and promotions related to all three. I spoke with someone at the magazine and gave her the quote from Steve that I’ve seen shared more than any other: “Put your ass where your heart wants to be.” She declined and said that their audience wouldn’t like the language. Fast forward to the airing of the interview and the clips shared online and guess which quote Oprah discussed. Yep. Ass and all.
Read MoreRemember The Way We Were, the 1973 blockbuster starring-vehicle for Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford? The theme song, sung by Babs, won an Oscar; the film itself was rated by AFI as #6 on the list of Greatest Love Stories of All Time. But let’s focus, you and I, on the THEME and how it is expressed in the Opening and Closing Images. Remember our third rule of In and Outs Club: The opening and closing images must be on-theme. The In to The Way We Were is the titles sequence. It’s a montage of quick scenes of students at…
Read MoreI went to an Ozzy Osbourne concert with my son. Zakk Wylde was on stage tapping. I know about tapping because my son plays guitar. He knows about tapping because he loves Led Zeppelin.
Read More“I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American fashion … “ These are the opening lines of The Godfather. They’re spoken in extreme closeup by the undertaker Bonasera in a heavy Italian accent. Bonasera speaks out of deep shadow. He recounts with painful emotion how his beautiful young daughter, defending her honor, was brutally beaten by two young men, “not Italians,” whom the American courts subsequently let go free. The camera slowly pulls back as Bonasera relates his daughter’s woe, until the frame has widened enough that we begin to see…
Read More(From the archives: This one is brought to you straight from December 18, 2015) Not that long ago I asked an acquaintance to cut an hour out of his day so that I could “run something by him.” It’s important to point out that this acquaintance had a laundry list of accomplishments parallel to my own ambitions. He was a bestselling writer, a bestselling publisher, and a world-renowned speaker paid big bucks for the very hour I asked of him. He is someone any of us would put in our top five of inwardly powerful people who’d figured out the…
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